Heart Care Centers of Illinois is proud to recognize Dr. Joseph Stella's contributions to this year's Transcatheter Therapeutics(TCT)  symposium.

Dr. Stellla served as a faculty member at the 17th Annual TCT Scientific Symposium, October 16-21, at the Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C.

Dr. Joseph Stella, an interventional cardiologist with Heart Care Centers of Illinois at St. Francis Hospital & Health Center, has prompted an international study that could change the way acute heart attack patients are treated world-wide. Initial findings indicate fewer symptoms and complications for the patient.

The Horizons Trial will examine the effects of the blood-thinning drug Angiomax (bivalirudin) given intravenously to heart attack patients upon arrival at the emergency department. The international trial will involve 3,000 patients from 40 countries, including the U.S., Europe and Asia. The trial will take about two years to complete.

“Administering Angiomax for acute heart attack patients may very well become a standard around the world,” Dr. Stella explained. “Using Angiomax in place of combination drug therapy, such as the blood thinner heparin and IIb/IIIa receptor inhibitors, has shown to promote less bleeding with similar results toward safety, and at a lesser cost.”

Angiomax is given to heart attack patients during a cardiac catheterization procedure after first being stabilized in the emergency department. It is an alternative to a combination of drugs widely administered to prevent blood clotting and complications in heart attack patients.

Dr. Stella pioneered the Biami Trial, which was launched at St. Francis Hospital in the spring of 2004. The trial studied the effects of Angiomax on more than 200 patients in 14 centers across the U.S. Dr. Stella released those results at the prestigious Cardiovascular Research Foundation’s Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2005 Symposium in Washington, D.C., in October. The symposium was attended by 12,000 interventional cardiologists from around the world. Dr. Stella is one of only 500 interventional cardiologists world-wide to be named to the TCT faculty.

“The results from Biami are very encouraging,” Dr. Stella said. “They clearly suggest the use of Angiomax alone compared to standard anti-coagulants in acute heart attack patients is safe, cost effective and is associated with less bleeding complications.”

“If you have a heart attack and need an intervention, such as an angioplasty or a stent put in, you need a blood thinner to prevent blood clots from forming on the newly placed stents,” Dr. Stella said. “More bleeding increases the chance for unfavorable outcomes, heart attacks and even death. Prior to Biami, it has been shown that Angiomax has the same safety profile with less bleeding than combination drug therapy in patients who did not suffer an acute heart attack.”